K
ronomyth 8.0: LIONS, TIGERS AND BEARS. Saving The Wildlife is the soundtrack to a PBS special of the same name, which focused on endangered species around the world. It was subsequently released as the new Mannheim Steamroller album, though it didn’t sell particularly well (neither did the band’s second tour of nature, Yellowstone). As soundtracks go, Wildlife is a fun record. The Wizard of Omaha and Jackson Berkey get some support from fellow C.W. McCall alum Ron Agnew, local musician (and touring member) Joey Gulizia and American Gramaphone artist Ric Swanson in creating short pieces that evoke the personalities and localities of various animals. The opening “Rhinos and Elephants,” with its African percussion, is fair warning that Saving The Wildlife isn’t business as usual. Instead, Davis and company are earnest in their efforts to create suitably exotic landscapes for their animals. It’s a playful bestiary, accessible enough for children, clever enough that Vangelis and (of course) Mannheim albums past come to mind. As I pointed out in my awesome review of this on AMG, Saving The Wildlife is guilty of perpetuating musical stereotypes; I’ve docked the album an imaginary and invisible star for this. If it had been Jean-Michael Jarre lampooning Americans on “Florida Suite” or “Grizzly Bears, and not Chip Davis, we would be burning french fries in the streets. (And we would be calling the patriots behind them French Friers.) While it’s not quite a match for the Fresh Aire albums, Saving The Wildlife is no stuffy PBS soundtrack either. In many ways, it’s the lighter side of Mannheim, and a harbinger of what was to come in the 90s.